Is Google now blocking Windows Phone from using Google Maps?

We’re not sure if this is just a temporary error or something more nefarious but Google appears to have changed something whereby Windows Phone users are now blocked when trying to access maps.google.com.

Granted, it’s not clear why you would want to use Google’s less-than-awesome mapping service through a browser, but humor us for a second. The move appears to be a continued approach to lockout all Google services from those who adopted Windows Phones. Or it’s just poor service.

We were able to verify on our Windows Phones that when going to maps.google.com we are redirected to www.google.com/m for mobile, regardless of IE10’s settings i.e. Desktop mode. Reports suggest that maps.google.co.uk still works for some folks but for us that too redirects, making this an in-motion change that is evidently occurring worldwide.

We were also able to confirm that on the iPhone users are prompted to download the Google Maps app (must be nice) but they can bypass that redirect and still successfully access maps.google.com if the user so chooses. Android users, trying various browsers, also have no problems making this a unique issue with Windows Phones only.

"It is definitely on purpose. If you change the user agent in Firefox (using User Agent Switcher) to "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch; IEMobile/10.0", you get redirected to the Google home page. But if you set the user agent to "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phne 8.0; Trident/6.0; ARM; Touch; IEMobile/10.0" (notice I intentionally misspelled Windows Phone), the maps.google.com page comes up just fine. In other words, the only way I was able to get it to redirect is to have Windows Phone in the user agent string. So something on Google's side is keying off the user agent for windows phone"

Google's continued assault on Windows Phone users

Google has famously proclaimed that they will not make apps for Windows Phone users to access their services and now they are evidently looking to deny any usage whatsoever. First it was their dropping of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) occurring later this month, which will prevent users from creating new accounts on their phones and syncing Gmail contacts and calendar, and then there was the YouTube incident.

That second complaint goes back to 2011 when Microsoft alleged that Google was not allowing access to YouTube metadata to the company, preventing Microsoft from releasing a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. Microsoft brought up the grievance again this week because it still has not been resolved, with Microsoft going so far as to allege Google is decisively blocking a “first rate” YouTube experience on Windows Phone.

Malevolent or just idiocy?

So the big question here is this part of the continued Google attack on Windows Phone users or just shoddy programming resulting in a bad redirect? We’re not too sure at this point and we’ll have to wait a few days to see if anything changes. It does certainly seem suspect though with the current back and forth between the two internet juggernauts, it only affecting Windows Phone browsers and with Google recently being “cleared” by the FTC of any egregious anti-competitive behavior.

We suppose if you were so inclined to use Google Maps you could just go ahead and use the excellent app gMaps Pro but outside of some really unique situations, we can’t see why you would prefer it over Bing or Nokia Maps.

In conclusion, we have to ask the question: is it time to actively boycott Google? We’re assuming a lot of you have made the move off of their ad-laden services but is it time to step it up a notch and go offensive with individual anti-Google campaigns? Perhaps.

The reason I tried this is because I figured it could be possible that an unknown user agent would force the redirect, but when I made the user agent invalid, maps.google.com displayed just fine. I could see how a coding mistake on google's part could cause unknown user agents to redirect, but in this case, they are clearly recognizing the agent, and redirecting.

Has anyone else repro'd this? That's pretty ridiculous - I can't think of any legit reason for this to happen, but then I'm a tad ignorant about what actually happens when you change the user agent--it doesn't change he browser functionality, does it?

The user agent is really just a string of text that gets passed by the browser to the website to identify which browser is currently requesting the page. It doesn't affect the browser functionality, but the website that is processing the request can use the user agent to offer a different style sheet for example. Or in the case of maps.google.com, redirect the user all together.

How about a windows update that blocks the use of google services...I bet a solution might be found pretty quick if that were to happen. Even if Google sued, it could take years to work itself out in court. The execs at Msft must have never heard of leverage.

Its funny, both YouTube and google maps both work fine on both desktop version and mobile version (UK) however this is the first time I've tried to open either of these two websites in over a year! Bothered.....no.

I think the main issue is Microsoft made such a huge splash when Windows 7 seemed to convince the overall market that Microsoft finally got their shit together and Microsoft did such a great job with Bing and possibly the notion Bing doesn't allow advertisers to be first in search queries might have turned some heat on Google. Then there is Windows 8 and Windows 8 tablets and Phones! I am just guessing possibly Googles CEO and Marketing agents are worried because it all ties together and a great self advertising scheme possibly something Google cannot compete with since almost every home computer has possibility opportunity to be upgraded to Windows 8 for $40 USD! I doubt the Chrome books are seeing much market share.. I see it Android isn't much without the OEM's and thanks to Apple Samsung probably feels like it might cause them more trouble later on... Hopefully Apple and Samsung are done... I don't hate Google or Android just Google needs to save face and break bread with Microsoft!

One thing if they dont develop an app or give access. If they restrict the maps itself then i do not think that will go well with google through the antitrust. They even complained about having IE as the default on windows 8. So let's see how it goes. I really wish MS stops all these cool apps on androids starting now and see how it goes for google.

If this is true, then its a sad day for technology. The game of creating technology is to create innovations that better the competition, so your products gets the plaudits. Microsoft has truly innovated with Windows Phone, and should get the plaudits & sales it deserves. But how can this be achieved when google deny them the sites & tools that are VITAL for a mobile platform too succeed? Its wrong and unfair

Has anybody else tried that redirected page before pulling out the torches and pitchforks? I was redirected on my Lumia 920, but I was still able to enter a search and get a static mini-map:https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=66DEAFBC754C6FF2&id=66DEAFBC754C6FF2!2624
If you want a rich experience, you should be using the built-in Bing, Bing Maps, Nokia Maps, or Local Scout on your Windows Phone anyway.

'Outside of some really unique situations?'
Please, there is a big world outside the United States(yep, it's true, USA != world) where Bing maps are hopeless. So it's not a wise decision by Google to block web access to their maps.

If Android owned less then 3 percent of the market do you think Microsoft would have skydive and all their other apps on the Play Store? If you do, then you think too highly of microsoft. All I'm saying is that if the roles were reversed, Microsoft would be just as bad as Google.

I'm not entirely sure why WP users aren't taking advantage of ms's ecosystem. Everything a WP user needs is in their hands! Maps and navigation, seriously, how often do you use that? Gmail, what does Gmail have that outlook doesn't? I'm I lost or not getting with the program? Someone help enlighten me!

Bing maps are terrible outside the United States.
And you don't just switch emails like that, especially if someone has been a long time Gmail user, which millions of people are. Take me for example, I've my Gmail account setup as my login in God knows how many websites, everyone I know knows my Gmail address and I've been using it for nearly 10 years now. I can't just 'switch' to outlook. It's not possible no matter what stop-gap solution you present.

Can't say much about maps since I hardly use. Bing seems to work fine for me. For mail, its more or less a matter of convenience. Here's what I say, you're using WP, join the family. Start taking advantage. You won't regret.

I don't remember how long it was that I had my Gmail account. I was a beta tester for them about a year or two before Gmail went public. So last year I had enough of Google and closed every account with them. Went to all the sites I was concerned about, updated them and never looked back. It's not difficult to change you just have to want to change.

My reason for not using bing instead of google as a internet search tool so far:
- Bing still in beta in my country
- Standard bing search results cannot be filtered by date (I use this option a lot). It can be done when searching for news only, but then I lose the ability of searching for sites of more than one language
- Bing search results just not as good as google's
Bing might world well for you, in your part of the world, but it sure as hell doesn't in other parts of the world. And as long as Microsofts has customers in parts of the world where bing (or any other MS tools) are not working well, there will always be Microsoft customers using competitors tools.

Sigh ... I don't know why some people S T I L L think if something works for them, it MUST be working for all people. Believe me, this is just not the case.

BTW, I neither use bing maps nor google maps, I'm happy with nokia maps. I also don't use gmail as I have no reason to do so (only had a gmail account because I have used an android phone before).

It is a full conscious move from Google... As I've read this, I also recalled that Google maps used to work on my Zune HD; but when I tried to access today, it also got redirected. It wouldn't surprise me if Google PR says this day or tomorrow that it was in the "best interest of giving users a full experience" or some similar crap

Microsoft should block Google from W7-8! That would really bite their ass.. Sure 90% of the world would go nutz at first, but once they saw the price for a Mac, and started to use Bing, in time they would forget all about Google. Trust me, the world would move on. If Google can block their services from a OS, then MS should be able to block its OS from their services! Seriously, if this were to happen MS would rule the entire computer landscape desktop, and mobile.

And if Microsoft did that, they'd get in more hot water than Google would, given Windows 90% (roughly) market share on computers (laptops/desktops). MS would soon find it didn't rule anything at all with all the attention they'd get from the FTC and Justice Dept.
They've already gotten in hot water over abusing their monopoly power and would not want to do so again, especially since repeat behavior would trigger rather more substantial penalties.

Its been said before, but just remove the ability for Google to to run in IE and disallow any google program from running in windows.
There'll be a loud noise from the google camp, Things will have to be settled then.

I use Bing maps on my Omnia 7, as soon as I get my Lumia 920 I will use bing and Nokia maps. If Scroogle want to stop .. thats fine by me, but you cant stop supping me, because I stoped useing you.
The only place I still use google is on a PC, and thats 95% bing search, and 5% Google Search, 95% bing maps, and 5% google Maps, Google Earth, and YouTube.
If I was 100% off Google it would hurt their add income more than it would hurt me.

Strange!! It worked on my PC using IE 10, also since im using Windows 8 on my PC, i opend Google maps using its application "Google" then clicked on Apps, then maps and it worked well. Also i wrote the website of maps.google.com on the google apps and it worked fine. But on my phone it didnt work......
If google is blocking gmaps and maybe all of its services, then i think Microsoft should do too. Block Skype on Andriod and lets see how it wil go. Mircosoft is getting beaten up from google every few days...not cool

We need to do a smart boycott. You should only use their services that'll bleed Google money. For example, use Gmail for junk mail, sign up for all kind of SPAM and don't clean your mail box. Use Youtube but block all advertising. Use Google voice but don't give them a red cent.

LOL, that's what I already do =)
I have 20 Gmail accounts that I use when I encounter "Enter Email address for coupon code" situations, and they are all filled with gigs of spam. And I haven't seen an ad on Youtube for ages thanks to Adblock+.

This is whay MS should not allow office on android or ios. Xbox as well should be locked to thier ecosystem, its not right its just the way it is. At least not allow thier properties on android. period.

This is from Google's About page. This is their mission statement:
"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."
What tools. I really can't stand Google. I'm THIS close to being able to close my google account. And I won't look back.

I'm owning a Lumia 920 and have just done a little Wireshark session: when browsing to maps.google.com (as well as www.google.com), the browser uses the User-Agent "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows Phone OS 7.5; Trident/5.0; IEMobile/9.0)". Browsing to ifconfig.me leads to the usual "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 920)".
Spoofing the UA for specific sites is not unusual (just have a look at override_downloaded.ini in your Opera's profile folder), as site owners are using browser switches to treat specific browsers different (as Google now)...
Therefore I expect MSFT will soon update IE10's "override_downloaded.ini", so IE10 is spoofing being something else (e.g. Chrome ;-)) when browsing to Google.
Nevertheless, out of Google's perspective, WP8 has currently a market share of 0%.

UC Browser is available on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and a number of other platforms. It is not webkit based. I am curious if anyone with an Android phone is able to hit maps.google.com using that browser.

here.com is using a browser switch, too. When browing with IE10 on my Lumia, I'm getting a "HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily" with "Location: explore-maps://v1.0/" triggering the system to open the map app.

What i find BullSh*t id that if that was Microsoft stopping these services they would have been hit with an anti trust fine and bitching in comments wont do anything, im taking action and i will be putting a complaint into the EU as this it wrong. i recommend everyone does this as its the only way you will get this to change as they will keep getting away with it unless we take a stand against them.
(myself i don't use Google services so this doesn't affect me but there are WP users that do and that includes YouTube i ditched it when i got Windows 8 as i use Xbox Music for my streaming needs)

Can't say I'm actively boycotting Google but when there is an alternative I ALWAYS pick the alternative.

And that was when I still had an iPhone 3G I stopped using Gmaps after it got me lost several times and I changed the default seach provider to Yahoo.

So currently I'm still using Youtube, Google Reader, and Kindle Fire (Android). As soon as I can get viable replacements for that stuff I can delete my Google account. I wonder if my dormant gmail/g+ account is inflating there numbers anymore than it needs to be...

A boycott is great and all, but it'd probably be more useful to start a petition asking for the FTC to look into this specific issue and then once whatever goal you set is reached, forward it to the FTC and Senate members who are on the Commerce Committee. It's much more likely that it will get looked into and possibly force Google's hand than just boycotting their services when it won't be everyone who does so and there's still plenty on other platforms who will use it. Get the attention of the FTC or the Senate committee on this issue and it won't matter how many others continue to use Google, they may be forced to change their ways. Yes, I know they were recently cleared by the FTC, that was on a different issue entirely .

I agree. Boycotting Google will not have an effect. The WP community is just too small. A petition "might" work, but then again, I don't think you would get enough signatures from WP users who care or have knowledge about Google's shenanigans.

that would be like quitting a job out of spite, Right now android is too big of a skype user base to take that hit on the wallet. MIcrosft still wont release a skype app for my Blackberry 7 or playbook, not because there lazy, because they dont want to support the compatition. We all have our fingers crossed skype is being made available for BB10. But with these kindoff google attacks going on microsoft probably feels the same way with RIM

yes but ms isnt blocking blackberry from making their own app. The difference is google is blockign windows device from accessing their service, based off the identity of the device as a windows phone.

The only thing I really miss from wp is a good service equivalent to google lattitude. the one in gmaps pro is not as good as the native one. Can you recommend something to me? The people I need to follow use iOS, wp and Android. Thanks

Oh god, get real. I lost all respect for the author and content of this article when i read "Google’s less-than-awesome mapping service" , lets be real. Ok, Bing maps is a steaming pile of shit compared to Google maps. Dont watch MS piss on me and regurgitate their press releases that it's raining. This is supposed to be a third-party independent site, and when you make statements that are so obviously biased and beyond reasoning, you really throw your credibility into question.
I love this site, I read it multiple times daily and i've tipped a few times and been credited for it. If i didnt i sure as hell wouldnt care to take my time and email in. But this shit is unquestionably not cool. Please tone down the MS fanboy shit and call a spade a spade. In this case, Bing maps kinda do the trick sometimes, but the service needs serious overhaul and improvement to stack up anywhere close to Google maps. They aren't in the same galaxy at the moment, lets not sink to the level of pretending they are because that's what we're kinda stuck with at the moment. That's not right, and when we do it we're just as bad as all the apple fanboys we all know and dislike.

I understand what DSE... means. Sometimes us users for whom some of googles services are working better than the ones if googles competitors (e.g. MS) have the feeling we're not being taken seriously on this site. I, for example, can't believe that some people are STILL not seeing that MS' services aren't best for all of us and suggesting that we just shouldn't use google are not helping at all.

I would wish for an article on, say, the reasons what keeps some people from using googles alternatives, maybe together with telling where they live - if only to make seen that we have a voice here, too.

Dude, if you are taking about maps then Nokia is,way better and does the job well! Besides gmaps need to be updated, till now the satellite images of my town is like 10 years ago and things have changed but in Bing and Nokia maps ate updated. To me this is a fail! Look yes google has awesome services but I'm not worried at all just YouTube is the only thing you can't replace!

dude I switched from iPhone to Nokia Lumia 920 and I didn't go to android even though I would have since In the family we have s2! Its simply a copy cat of the ios and boring! Don't compare wp8 with ur nexus and jelly bean! Android sucked at the beginning and with time it grew and got better and that's for for sure what will happen to wp8 it will get better! Even though I believe that WP 8 is amazing!

wp8 is gr8 and awesome and hey they didn't copy iOs! So,don't be stupid and tell us how wow is ur andriod after all of this time.....

This is a good thing, it should encourage MS and Nokia to make more improvements (and much faster) to their own mapping services to make them a more competitive replacement. In the end Google will lose, but all of the customers (regardless of mobile platform) will benefit from this action because there will be more alternatives. So stop your whining and just wait for MS and Nokia to do that... Just use a 3rd-party Google Maps apps (they still work) for now if you're too dependant on Google Maps.

Buy AdBlock and make a big news out of it (even though MSFT may choose to do nothing of it). This will strike fear into Google for their wallet. All reports say that desktop ad revenue is still the lion share of all Google revenue and their mobile ad business is practically not generating anything. Also, AdBlock should not cost that much to MSFT.

Leverage the enterprise dominance by denying access to popular Microsoft offerings from Android devices. E.g., end support for Chrome (phone or tablet) on SharePoint, deny to sell Exchange client access license to Android devices or charge exorbitant price for the CAL for Android compared to iOS.

Since you all criticised Google maps that much, I went ahead and tried Nokia maps (I'm from AC). As a Hongkonger, when I saw all mandarin names in Hong Kong I instantly decided to boycott them. Sorry, but I'm infuriated by this enormous loophole. As if nokia were a communist.

Such is the fate of the underdogs. Just adds another sting for us who already don't get app support from most things. Thankfully, I don't ever use google search anymore, so this doesn't affect me at all. I just hope that we can get a bigger user base in the near future so that you won't have to worry if WP is supported all the time.
On a sidenote, Google is still being Google...

2013 : Google is now starting THE big fight because first, he have the crew with him, glued to his services, and second, MS is now a dangerous challenger with the great transition he make last year ( w8 wp8 office365, bing-Nokia maps, SkyDrive, Skype...)

Such a shame, a big company like Google shouldn't have to do this to mess with its competitors, they are obviously insecure about their products. I used to think Google is great but I'm a fan no more.
Good thing I've learned to live without Google apps, even though still using an android tablet, I use Skydrive and Nokia Maps/Bing Maps with ease, Gmail is the only thing keeping me.

Google would not be around without Microsoft Windows juggernaut. The founders rake in billions and now got over their heads, forgot their roots and you think Chrome OS will win by doing all these? Just LOL and disappointed with such childish act.

I said goodbye to Google a couple of days ago. Transferred everything to Hotmail/Outlook, started using Vimeo, Nokia maps (Here.com or Here.net), Vonage (instead of Google Voice), etc. I have survived with just a little effort. Now only if WPC would also stop using YouTube, that would be great.

I don't want to use google maps. I have Nokia maps which rocks. However this is the petty childish response to there already childish decision to cut off windows phone users. Google need a slap. They clearly havent considered the revenue they're losing . They think that limiting users will drive them to their products. IPhone have begun to fail with this approach. Intact there limitations are the very reason I chose WP7 over android

Very happy I bought a l920. Was tempted to go for a note 2. Today I visited a local phone dealer. I had a quick hands on experience with their demo model. Much to my surprise, it was lagging, as I swiped the homescreens. I thought the jelly bean update had fixed that. Something as basic as a smooth UI... Wtf? Why are WP taking so much heat, for it's minor issues? I don't get it. Screw google.

The reason behind is that IE10 is still not capable of allowing embedded touch/pan over the map area... making the map useless.
But they should be more polite displaying something like "not supported due to..."

That is so disappointing behavior of Google!
I am using a lot of Google stuff, and I never had the slightest idea of this stupid behavior from a company of that size! They should be happy for the interest from all kind of users, instead of sorting some of them out and block them with these kind of tricks.
I hope Google do change now, and let all platforms access their services, and start to develop an excellent app for WP!

This has been going on for months....my hd7 hasn't been able to pull google maps since before summer of 2012...the only workaround was to install opera mobile for wp7 from bazaar but then no rotation support...

If you guys wanna solve this, use the app USER AGENT SWITCHER.
I also got redirected from maps.google.com but one changed to fake Android it worked perfectly, so shame on you Google. This is a low measure in your companys history.

My first Windows Phone was the Samsung Focus. Back then, I didn't feel Bing was up to snuff, so I carried over my bad habbit of using Google to do all my searching with my newly aquired Lumia 920. After hearing about the YouTube api blockage and now this, I made a conscious effort to JUST USE BING. Wow. So many improvements and WAY BETTER INTEGRATION into the phone OS. Searching and doing different tasks with the search results is so much more efficient that I wish I made the switch sooner.
In the words of Ron Burgendy, "Go EFFF yourself, Google."